Infectious disease organization pushing for 10 new antibiotics by 2020

With the increase of multi-drug resistant infections happening all over the globe and the pronouncement by the World Health Organization (WHO) of antibiotic resistance as one of the top three greatest threats to human health, one organization has put out a policy statement concerning resolving this issue.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (ISDA) is one organization looking at solving this public health dilemma. They are looking at the development of an antibiotic pipeline by bringing together industry, scientific and policy communities, among others, to develop 10 new antibiotics by the year 2020.

Also known as the “10X20 initiative”, the ISDA supports the development through discovery of new antibiotic classes and even new drugs from existing classes of antibiotics.

Currently there are very few new candidate antibiotics in the pipeline at a time when multi-drug resistant organisms are expanding. The main concern is the inability to treat common infections and as they put it, “it may change the practice of medicine as we know it”.

A greatest concern are the “ESKAPE” organisms; Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species. Some of these organisms currently have no antibiotic that is active against it.

According to the ISDA, the incentives to create a scientific workforce and the Research and Development infrastructure are necessary to accomplish the “10X20” goal.